The Molecular Biology Core Facility will be pivotal in achieving the goals of this program. The Facility will serve as a central resource for reagents, oligonucleotides, DNA sequencing and pilot studies involving new molecular techniques. In addition, the Molecular Core Facility, in collaboration with the Animal Core Facility, will set up a facility for the production of transgenic mice. The Facility intends to expand its current polylmerase chain reaction technology to include techniques for detection of point mutations and for the quantitation of low abundance mRNA isolated from small tissue samples. These techniques will be utilized by all of the projects in this program. The ability to modulate the levels of growth factors and their cognate receptors in a tissue specific manner in transgenic mice will be important for understanding the role these factors play in tissue development, regeneration and maintenance of function.